8mm Forum: Question about VHS

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Topic: Question about VHS

Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted June 17, 2016 03:30 PM

What I eventually want is a tee-shirt with a photo from a VHS tape - Now, is it possible to "freeze" the photo I want, then have a copy made, then transferred onto a tee? - Any hlep, Shorty

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Pasquale DAlessio
Film God

Posts: 3523
From: Bristol,RI, USA
Registered: May 2010

posted June 17, 2016 03:36 PM

If you are talking about a video online, you can use the "print screen" function on the keyboard to save the file as a BMP. Then you can print it and take it to a place that prints on t-shirts and have them transfer it.

PatD

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Tom Spielman
Master Film Handler

Posts: 339
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Registered: Apr 2016

posted June 17, 2016 04:04 PM

I think the best way would be to connect a VCR to some sort of video capture device that's hooked up to a computer.

My miniDV camcorder can accept video/audio input via RCA jacks, digitize it and then send it out over firewire to a computer. I've transferred some VHS home videos that way. Then you can use video editing or playback software to grab an individual frame.

If you have access to a video projector you could hook up the VCR to that and just use a smart phone or digital camera to grab a movie/picture off the projection screen. Scan lines are a possibility in that case if there is a frame rate mismatch.

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Janice Glesser
Film Goddess

Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted June 17, 2016 07:19 PM

Hi Joe...An easy way to get your VCR connected to your PC is to use an EzCap. You will also need a set of RCA cables to connect your VCR to the EzCap. It comes with drivers and software.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E zCAP-USB-Video-Capture-Stick-32-64-Bit-Easycap-Record-PVR-VHS-US-Seller-/321650020100?hash=item4ae3d5cf04:g:5RkAAOxyrrpTjlsW

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Janice

"I'm having a very good day!"
Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted June 18, 2016 02:22 AM

Run the tape to where you want to copy on your TV set.
Freeze in still position.
Take photo with a camera.
Take film/card to a local camera shop.
Order a printed tee-shirt

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Maurice

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted June 18, 2016 06:26 AM

Thanks to all, I have very limited capabilities - Thought there might be an easy way to accomplish

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Tom Spielman
Master Film Handler

Posts: 339
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Registered: Apr 2016

posted June 18, 2016 08:24 AM

I was curious about Maurice's method so I thought I'd give it a try since it seemed to be the the simplest. Unfortunately our VCR shows a distorted image in pause mode which I think is pretty common unless you have a high quality VCR.

You might get acceptable results just by letting it play and taking a picture or movie with a digital camera. The movie will flicker but it's not really noticeable in individual frames. The resulting images will be soft. Snapshots didn't turn out well.

If your looking for something with sharp details this is probably not the way to go. VHS as a source would be problematic in that regard no matter what capture method is used I would think.

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Claus Harding
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1149
From: Washington DC
Registered: Oct 2006

posted June 18, 2016 09:41 AM

If you are going to make a t-shirt image (or any bigger image) from a VHS frame, you definitely don't want to be photographing it off a screen to begin with. The tape image is already low enough quality as it is.

Digitize the tape while it plays (perhaps using the little capture device Janice suggested), then grab a freeze with a photo editing program on your PC, tweak the picture a bit if needed and take it to a print place. It's not going to be a thing of beauty, but at least this way it will look as good as it can.

Claus.

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"Why are there shots of deserts in a scene that's supposed to take place in Belgium during the winter?" (Review of 'Battle of the Bulge'.)

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted June 18, 2016 11:01 AM

Sometimes instead of climbing a wall you need to look for a gate!

If by some chance you can find the sequence you are interested in on YouTube, Vimeo or stills using Google Images it's really easy to get good screen shots using "print screen" on a computer.

Shorty,

If you tell me what you need, I can help you find it.

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted June 18, 2016 11:58 AM

It sound like a lot of work, but i would suggest getting one of those video to digital files copiers, using the "AVI" file option, as, while it takes a lot more room in the PC, (it's avery large file, depending on how long the clip, were talking LOTS of gigabytes here!), ut you will get a complete, frame by frame, as sharp as possible copy, and then select the frame that you want. Guaranteed to give you the best screen capture from a VHS cassette.

Hope that helps. [Smile]

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Raleigh M. Christopher
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 130
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2016

posted June 18, 2016 06:47 PM

Record from VHS to Mini-DV
Import Mini-DV into iMovie on your Mac.
Take still frame from iMovie.

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Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014

posted June 19, 2016 03:55 AM

It was easier some time ago you could buy "Frame grabber" digitisers for the Amiga (and I think PCs) that could take stills directly from composite video. Before I had a digital camera I put small pictures into a club magazine (and on-line) from VHS-C tapes I had made the same day. I don't know if these are still available, but as technology has moved on, these were PCMCIA socket (remember those???) devices, I suspect not.

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted June 20, 2016 11:45 AM

I'm really annoyed with Mini DV as, in the late 90's into the new millenium, i recorded quite a few tapes of this, but once those Mini DV heads get dirty (and finding the cleaning heads locally is impossible, I'll have to try to find them on ebay or elsewhere), you just can't retrieve the footage.

A shame, as I shot most of my Mini DV with a scope lense on the front of the camera, and i remember that the results were very good. [Frown]

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Janice Glesser
Film Goddess

Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted June 20, 2016 02:15 PM

Osi....I don't know what brand Mini-DV camcorder you have...but the recording mechanism for these cameraS were basically made the same from the same manufacturer. You can clean the heads drum yourself without a special head-cleaner cassette. Check out some of these videos from YouTube to see what might work for you. In addition to cleaning...sometimes the heads needs to be demagnetised.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Clean+heads+on+mini+dv+camera

[ June 20, 2016, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]

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Janice

"I'm having a very good day!"
Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).

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